Manuel Avila Camacho

Manuel Avila Camacho (24 April 1897-13 October 1955) was President of Mexico from 1 December 1940 to 30 November 1946, succeeding Lazaro Cardenas and preceding Miguel Aleman Valdes. Avila's presidency marked a rightward shift in the Institutional Revolutionary Party's views, as he ended confrontational anti-clericalism, reversed the push for socialist education, and restored a working relationship with the United States during World War II.

Biography
Manuel Avila Camacho was born in Teziutlan, Puebla, Mexico on 24 April 1897, and he served in the Mexican Revolution as a colonel. In 1920, he became the Chief of Staff of Michoacan under Lazaro Cardenas, and he assisted in quelling Adolfo de la Huerta's 1923 rebellion and the Escobar rebellion of 1929. Avila served as Minister of War under President Cardenas, and his election to the presidency was determined by the outgoing Cardenas in 1940. Avila was more moderate than his predecessor, with his land reforms favoring less the ejidos than individual families. He supported the moderate working classes by establishing a social security system which was extended to the industrial labor system by subsequent presidents. Avila was also sympathetic to the Allied Powers during World War II, but he did not trust the United States; he led Mexico into the war only after the repeated German sinking of Mexican ships in 1942. After his term as president ended in 1946, he returned to his farm, and he died in 1955 at the age of 58.